Restaurants

If you like a slice of vintage chic with your dinner, but can’t quite picture yourself in the gilded splendour of the Ritz or similar ballroom-cum-restaurants, L’Oranger could be what you’re looking for. Oozing intimate charm, it’s tucked away at the end of posh St James’s Street. Airs of modernism are introduced by bold jewel-coloured carpets and geometric canvases on the walls, plus a pretty atrium flooding the room with light – this is a lovely space in which to dine. There’s room for minor improvements, though, as the premises are looking well worn this year. And though staff are plentiful, they don’t always work seamlessly together. Food, from a French menu care of chef Laurent Michel, also didn’t score on all fronts. A starter of salmon rillettes from the set lunch menu – not so different from the à la carte and significantly less costly – was overly rich and lazily served in a slack pile topped with greasy fried ‘toast’ and creamy sauce that lacked the zing to cut through the overt fishiness. In comparison, a main of roasted monkfish (mostly fried in butter rather than roasted) was delicious, tender, hot and bathed in oodles of sunny, roughly chopped herbs and presented with a tasty vegetable tian: roundels of slowly baked onion, courgette and cherry tomato with a dusting of garlicky provençale breadcrumbs. Classic dishes, all of them, described in crisply correct French ahead of the English translation, cooked and served by French men and women. Desserts shine with professionalism, and could include summery strawberry soup with passionfruit granita, or breton shortbread with roasted apples, ginger crème anglaise (there had to be a nod to England somewhere) and apple liquor sorbet. The wine list’s a corker too.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2008